The Muksh Ambani-led telco has launched two new offers under the JioPhone 2021 banner. The first, priced at Rs 1,999, offers the feature phone with 24 months of unlimited services. The second, priced at Rs 1499, offers the VoLTE device with 12 months of unlimited services. Both plans offer unlimited voice calls and a monthly data allocation of 2GB.
Customers opting for the Rs 1,999 plan won’t need to recharge for 2 years, while those opting for the Rs 1,499 plan won’t have to recharge for a year.
“There are still 300 million subscribers in India who remain trapped in the 2G era, unable to access basic features of the internet, at a time, when the world stands at the cusp of a 5G revolution…since the last 4 years, Jio has democratised internet and passed on the benefits of technology to every Indian, and the new JioPhone 2021 offer is another step in that direction,” Akash Ambani, Reliance Jio director, said in a media statement.
Jio claimed its latest JioPhone 2021 offer is at least 2.5 times cheaper than similar offerings by its nearest rivals, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea.
“For the same benefit, customers pay 2.5x more on other networks,” the telecom market leader said. It said for a feature phone and 2-year service, a user on any other network spends Rs 5,000 compared to Rs 1999 on the latest JioPhone 2021 offering.
Last July, Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) chairman Mukesh Ambani had called on the government to speed up policy measures to ensure the rapid end of 2G mobile technology in India.
If the latest JioPhone offerings see market traction they are likely to hit legacy rivals Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea, which have a total 300 million 2G users between them that are critical to their revenue streams. Reliance Jio’s latest offerings come even as the telco reported its lowest ever net user additions in the October-December period.
